294 



PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 



ing racemes of flowers. The leaves are lanceolate and very 

 rough on the upper side. 



S, mollis^ or velvety golden-rod, is distinguishable by the 

 soft fleecy fuzz with which it is covered. It grows in dry 

 plains from Minnesota southward and westward. 



S.juncea, Plate LXIX. 



BLAZING STAR. 



Lacmdri'a scaribsa. 



Flower-heads : round ; growing in a long, wand-like raceme ; and composed 

 of tubular flowers with long slender lobes. Scales of the involucre, long and 

 bristly, purple tipped. Leaves : alternate ; lanceolate ; pointed. Stem: erect ; 

 leafy ; rather downy. 



Why these beautiful flowers, which are clustered thickly or 

 loosely together, as the case may be, were ever named blazing 

 star it would trouble the wisest of us to explain. Their particu- 

 lar charm lies in their warm rich colouring. 



Z. squarrhsa, or scaly blazing star, is a beautiful variety with 

 larger, fewer flov/er-heads of rose purple. It blooms in the late 

 summer and autumn and mostly southward and westward from 

 Pennsylvania. Another name for it is rattlesnake-master ; the 

 bites of which snakes it has been supposed to be efficacious in 

 curing. 



BURR THISTLE. SPEAR THISTLE. 



Cardnus laticeolatus. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Cojnposite. Purplish crimson. Scentless. North and east. July-November. 



Flower-heads: large; solitary; composed entirely of tubular flowers and sur- 

 rounded by a prickly involucre. Leaves : alternate ; sessile, much cut and beset 

 with red prickles. Stem : leafy ; rough. 



" Nemo me impune lacessit." 



Truly the farmer's life is no merry jest ; for when he attempts 

 to lean back in his easy chair, and flatter himself that he has 



